The present invention relates to winders in general, and to apparatus for starting a new winding core in a winder in particular.
When paper, paperboard, or roll pulp is manufactured, it is initially wound into jumbo rolls at the end of a papermaking machine. The jumbo rolls are then processed through a slitter and winder which converts the jumbo roll into smaller rolls i.e., sets from which products are made, from newspapers to, in the case of roll pulp, diapers and sanitary napkins.
Roll pulp and products such as paperboard are relatively thick so that when wound onto a set roll, a roll of a selected diameter is rapidly formed. Once a set roll is formed, a new winding core must be placed in the winder, and a new tail or start formed by cutting the web must be attached to the new winding core. Roll pulp is a thick absorptive web which may be, for example, 1.2 mm thick. Roll pulp is used in such products as diapers and sanitary napkins. In such applications it is the present industry standard that no foreign material such as hot glue residuals find there way into the final product. For this reason, only double-sided sticky tape can be used to attach the web to a cardboard winding core. The tape stays with the cardboard winding core when the roll pulp is used and thus, unlike hot-melt glue, cannot find its way into the finished product.
The normal process of using a winder with roll pulp or board webs, which cannot be moved by an air blow, involves bringing the machine to a stop, slicing the web, placing double-sided sticky tape on a winding core and placing the core in the winder, and manually pressing the roll pulp web onto the double sided tape on the winding core, then winding a set and repeating the process. For thinner paper webs it is possible to automate the process becomes the web can be blown onto the winding core, or picked up by the double-sided sticky tape from the reeling drum. Neither of these processes work if the web is too stiff. With a thicker web it is necessary to start a new reel or set often, and when starting a new set it is necessary to press the thicker web onto the double-sided sticky tape by hand. These steps require significant labor and time, so that the winder may be operating less than half of the time.
What is needed is a way to increase productivity when rewinding thicker paper or fiber webs.